Between designing websites and branding and packaging and logos and books oh my, sometimes it’s nice to take a meditative break and work on some hand drawn typography. This session used one of my favorite Beatle’s quotes from the song The End to practice my script type lettering skills – “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”. It took four tracing iterations to figure out layout, script details and inking…
Many moons ago I ventured to Pendleton, Oregon for the annual Round-Up. Growing up in Central Oregon I had gone to a few local rodeos and fairs, but the Pendleton Round-Up is the BIG TIME, so there was some preparatory work to do. First off, I dug up all my childhood photo albums to relive my days as a young girl obsessed with horses. Want me to name every anatomical point of an equine? Naw, didn’t think so.
Then, I pulled up the top hits of country music from the mid-90s so I could make a playlist worthy of the 3 1/2 hour drive to Pendleton. Despite the wrinkled expressions of displeasure that I received from my car-mates, I stand by this as a totally rocking road trip mix that I dubbed “Pendleton Cheese”.
There are a lot of requirements for being a bona fide cowboy, and during our short time in Pendleton we tried to experience as many as possible. One night, Michael checked ‘being a hipster badass’ off his to-do list by being the first in the room to hop on the mechanical bull.
I knew it would be tough to look legit in a town that would certainly realize I was city folk, but anyone can aspire to be a real cowboy, and my research turned up a few nuggets of pure western gold.
The Pendleton Round-Up is one of the largest rodeos in the US and dubbed the “fastest moving rodeo” because of the extreme organization of the back-to-back events. No sooner had the last bronc rider been bucked off and it was on to the next competition. One of the most exciting events was the Indian Relay Race. Those original Americans sure know how to ride.
Another fun part of visiting Pendleton was taking a tour of the underground tunnels and the brothels. Cowboys live a hard life, and they gotta have fun sometimes. I suppose that’s why some girls go wrong.
While my friends and I didn’t necessarily go wrong, it sure was a weekend to remember: whiskey drinking, rough riding, dust in your face fun. While we might not have passed muster as a true tough-as-nails cowboys, we definitely won the belt buckle for having a good time, encapsulated perfectly in these lyrics from Garth Brooks “Rodeo”. Now, where do I find a belt sturdy enough to hold up my pelvis-plaque of honor?
Well it’s bulls and blood, it’s dust and mud, it’s the roar of a Sunday crowd…
It’s the white in his knuckles, the gold in the buckle, he’ll win the next go ’round…
It’s boots and chaps, it’s cowboy hats, it’s spurs and latigo…
It’s the ropes and the reins, and the joy and the pain, and they call the thing…
RODEO.
Almost all of the projects posted on the Bureau blog are real, live, produced projects. Hardly ever do I post a speculative project, and if something is made for personal gratification it is duly noted. Along with posting nearly 100% original content, transparency was one of my goals when starting a blog – showing what I made for fun, what I made for money, and how I got there.
To me, is important to show design that has been through the filter of client feedback, changing project needs, production specifications, budget requirements, and multiple rounds of design. So much of design is what happens between the initial idea and the end result. But a part of the job of being a designer is also getting things killed, which I’d also like to share.
A recent project for Umpqua Bank didn’t make it through a budget shift, but I am proud of the result and got permission to show some work that would otherwise never see the light of day. The project was to create a promotional sticker for a video with the title “Fall in Love”. A love parachute was drawn with Umpqua’s blue color palette, the cloud shape subtly alluding to the clouds used in their branding. The sticker evolved from a detailed illustration to a more simple line drawn design. Produced or not, the message is positive and I’m happy I got the chance to work on it.
Almost all of the projects posted on the Bureau blog are real, live, produced projects. Hardly ever do I post a speculative project, and if something is made for personal gratification it is duly noted. Along with posting nearly 100% original content, transparency was one of my goals when starting a blog – showing what I made for fun, what I made for money, and how I got there.
To me, is important to show design that has been through the filter of client feedback, changing project needs, production specifications, budget requirements, and multiple rounds of design. So much of design is what happens between the initial idea and the end result. But a part of the job of being a designer is also getting things killed, which I’d also like to share.
A recent project for Umpqua Bank didn’t make it through a budget shift, but I am proud of the result and got permission to show some work that would otherwise never see the light of day. The project was to create a promotional sticker for a video with the title “Fall in Love”. A love parachute was drawn with Umpqua’s blue color palette, the cloud shape subtly alluding to the clouds used in their branding. The sticker evolved from a detailed illustration to a more simple line drawn design. Produced or not, the message is positive and I’m happy I got the chance to work on it.
My partner in dining crime (including but not limited to: root beer taste testing, Tour de Nacho, Danish Julefrokost, and juicer extraordinaire), writer Jen Stevenson has recently launched the next step in her march towards world domination via culinary storytelling by creating the website Wordcake.
On Wordcake you can buy exhaustingly comprehensive and entertaining eating e-guides for select cities, get the book 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces in Portland, and protect your iPhone against food foibles with custom cases. If you’ve ever dropped your phone into a chocolate cake, you’ll know the importance of protecting it. Here are the first four designs created for Wordcake’s new line of products.
It doesn’t take much to entertain me, so frequently the people closest to me are rewarded with my extra, ahem, ideas. So this is how I ended up making silly Guard Animal signs and posting them on the internet…
One night at dinner, some friends and I focused our conversation on a small bronze snail figurine placed between the salt and pepper shakers and the butter jar. One friend picked it up, noting its heft and pointy feelers. Another friend commented on its hidden abilities to bring an intruder to their knees if used correctly. “We should have a guard snail sign, and we should name him after Emil!” exclaimed another table member, referring to the most amicable of us in the group. DONE and DONE.
You don’t have to tell me twice to make a Guard Snail sign. At the slightest urging I’ll scuttle off and make a whole series of the most terrifying and life-threatening guard creatures ever!
Post the Guard Squirrel on your front door and acorn thiefs will hightail it lickity split. Place the Guard Goldfish on your water closet door and no guest will ever dare leave the room smelling of other than dewdrops and roses. Put the Guard Kitten in your wallet amongst your family photos and pickpockets will walk your pilfered money sleeve to the nearest precinct. GUARANTEED.
All of these Guard Animals are available for download and personal printing in the following PDF files. Each PDF contains all Guard Animals, so find your selected weapon, print the appropriate page and cut out your sign. The signs are smallish, the the impact is large.
– Download English “Guard Animal” signs
– Download Dansk “Her Vogter Jeg” skilte
The past year has been one of words. After moving from Portland, Oregon to Copenhagen, Denmark in 2012 I was surrounded by NEW. How do you describe what is happening? What do you say to people when they ask you inanely expected or intensely personal questions? How do you document the experiment of experiencing so many new things, you can barely keep up? Which ideas survive translation, which fail? Words can be wonderfully specific or frustratingly vague, and vice versa.
The past year was spent doing quite a bit of correspondence writing. On Facebook, in emails and postcards home (yes, the kind you send in the mail), with newfound pen pals…even sending letters in a bottle. And, writing single words accompanied by a feather.
The past year resulted in twelve illustrations of quill pens, the old fashioned way of writing your thoughts. Ink and time define what you can lay on a page, extraneous thoughts are omitted in favor of measured words, exactly the ones you want to use.
